1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for exposing, developing and viewing film, such as dry silver film, between a film supply reel and a film take-up reel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often desirable, for example in aircraft reconnaissance, to be able to record information onto film and then quickly develop the film so that it may be viewed in a very short time after having been exposed. Systems for doing this have been devised in the past, but have heretofore utilized film which required wet baths for developing. Wet baths provide a number of difficulties, particularly in aircraft use where motions of the aircraft can easily cause spillage of the bath, and, accordingly, it has been sought to use a film which requires no wet baths. Dry silver film has the advantage of having no wet baths, but has heretofore had the difficulty that a very high intensity exposure is required, e.g. one hundred to three hundred times more intensity than that of the wet bath film. The recording device, such as a CRT writer, must therefore be driven at a level which undesirably shortens the life of the writer and reduces the resolution of the writer due to CRT beam spreading at high intensity levels. One method for reducing the required intensity for the writer is to utilize a lamp to pre-expose the film prior to its arrival at the writer, but this only solves part of the problem. The intensity required to write over the pre-exposed film is still too high to provide adequate life and resolution for the writer and heretofore there has been no practical system for utilizing dry silver film in an environment where it is desired to write, develop and view all within a short period of time.